Canadian ｜ 喔，我爸如果看到這個，一定會氣死｜外國在臺灣｜Living in Taiwan as a foreigner

I think Asians are over blow-drying their hair and the fans, it was a circus while he was here. Taiwan, man, the opportunities are endless. Overprivileged adults, that's right. Guys that, you know, have too much money and they don't know what to do with it. You're trying to improve their national product or you're trying to make it entertainment. We don't have the size over here. It's tough here for foreign women. I hear from Taiwan it's a very hail Mary shot. You're not going to get it done. Just teaching English isn't going to get you the lifestyle that you probably wanted or thought you could have in Asia. That's what Taiwan doesn't have, that Canada has. Old people stick together a little bit better in Taiwan without the help of money. Sorry, my English isn't very good. Oh, this is my dad. If he's watching this, he's going to hate this. And remember, if you like the video, you have an option to hype the video. Help us hype this video so more and more people can see the video. So I'm Scott Lilliev, Scottie D, and I'm from Canada. I've been in Taiwan for 15 years. 15 hot, glorious years of Taiwan. Currently, I have a few jobs. I teach golf to overprivileged adults and I do basketball commentary and I still teach. I still do enjoy teaching, but only kindergarten. Overprivileged adults, that's right. Guys that have too much money and they don't know what to do with it. They want to start playing golf. I'm more of a joker. So when I say overprivileged adults, golf in Taiwan is very expensive. So it's a sport that only caters to people that have money. It's not very accessible to the regular pub person. It's like 4,000 a round to play a round of golf here and there's not many golf courses. Is it different from maybe other countries? Well, I'm from Canada where it's affordable to golf. There's golf courses everywhere and there's lots of space for golf. But here in Taiwan, there's not a lot of space for it. And it's really more of a status thing. When you go to these golf clubs in Taiwan, you'll see a lot of guys with nice cars and great clubs, but they can't play golf. It's more just like for the conversation. What did you do today? I went to play golf. You know, most of the time when we even see it on movies, people that play golf usually are very rich people. Golf is where a lot of business takes place on the golf course, you know. And if it comes down to you and someone else and it's a business decision and you have a nicer swing, maybe in today's age, you get that job, you know. Anyways, golf to me is hiking with a purpose. Hiking is boring. Golf is hiking, but you got a job to do. You got a job to do. Yeah. And you also mentioned you commentating. Yeah, I do. I do professional basketball commentary. I've done that for three years now. I started when Dwight Howard was here. I call that Dwightmania. And he came in here and the fans, it was a circus while he was here. And that's when I started doing the commentary. Now it's called the TPBL. I love basketball. I'm a talker. And it's just Taiwan, man. The opportunities are endless. The game, the basketball, how is it different the way it's played here in Taiwan compared to the way it's played in the world? US is the dominant country for basketball in the world. So there's no rules on imports that can come in. So here in Taiwan, the basketball league, you've got, what are you trying to do? You're trying to improve their national product, improve the local player, or you're trying to make it entertainment. So they're trying to do a balance of both. So each team is allowed four imported players. They're typically Americans or Europeans, like near-miss NBA guys. And then the rest of the roster is filled out by locals. And the locals are good, but where it differs is we don't have the size over here. We've got a lot of guards that can shoot. Everyone here can shoot threes. Standstill threes, everyone can shoot that. Where they're lacking is the rebounding and the length. And you see more and more naturalized citizens. And it's like Taiwan now has Brandon Gilbert, a naturalized citizen from America, playing on their national team. So seeing these kind of guys, the difference is size. And the interest is there. The TPBL is visually probably one of the best leagues in Asia to watch. And how is export of Taiwanese talent to the outside world? It's like Taiwanese basketball talent. So if you're a really good player and you're a local player, you're probably going to play in the CBA, the Chinese Basketball League. The Japanese league also pays more. We're getting there. The TPBL is able to compete slower as the increase in fans, like they had seven sold out games in the finals. So there's money coming in. I think we will be able to hold the good players here. But if you're really good from Taiwan, there's only Jeremy Lin is the only player to really make it to the NBA, if you consider him Taiwanese. So there's no real... The ceiling for someone in Taiwan is playing professional in China, I would say. So what advice would you have for the young Taiwanese guys who have passion for the game, but kind of not sure whether to go study harder or to focus on playing this game? When you can't control things like size, you can't control size. And you have to sharpen up the things that you can't control. You're catching, you're dribbling, and you're shooting, right? So you look at guys that are smaller that do well. There's a guy, Miles, Gao Jingwei, plays for the Italian Leopards. And he is 5'11", plays like Allen Iverson. But if he was 6'6", he'd be in the NBA. So my advice is don't give up. With the hopes of making the NBA here from Taiwan, it's a very hail Mary shot. You're not going to get it done. But there are exposures there. If you're good enough, someone's going to find you. Work on your shot. My advice to people that don't have the size is perfect all the aspects of your game that you can control. Give yourself the best opportunity. How about the support from the general public, let's say the fans? So over the three years, it's been a varied level of support. The first year, the support was there because Dwight Howard was here. And those games were sold out. And it was a circus. It was great. He interacted with the fans. And then the next year, there's DeMarcus Cousins came in. And those games weren't really sold out. The problems was there was no concessions the first year. There was no fan experience. There's no food for the fans to buy. Now they figured it out. Now they've got concessions, very affordable prices. They've got all sorts of different food available. And it's more of a fan experience. They've got cheerleaders all throughout the stadium, giveaways. I think they got the fans involved by just providing them with more services over the years. So we're getting there. And it was a five-year deal right now with AXN Sports. And it's going to be showed all across Asia for the next five years. And the direction is going the right direction. The biggest Taiwanese basketball. I've been here 15 years. And this is the most fans I've seen in a stadium for any series, for any league. And there's been a lot of different leagues that have come and gone. If there is anything that you wish or you could have improved if you are in the position to, maybe? You want to increase the viewership across Asia. And that's where you're going to get the money. You know how YouTube, you want more views, more eyes on. I think if they include more regions, like if they had a designated import spot for a Malaysian player, a designated import spot for a Filipino player. Every team has one player that each country can root for. That's why I think if they're going in the direction, the Japanese league does something like that. I think that could be something they could look into to increase the reach across the Asian market. The future of Taiwanese basketball is bright. As mentioned, it's now being shown on AXN Sports with KC Global Media to 19 countries, 94 million households starting in October for five years. And that went from no English to that's what we're doing now. And so the future of Taiwanese basketball for the next five years is bright. Beyond that, it's building towards something that I could see sustainable and maybe not have so many leagues wash through because we've had a lot of leagues come and go. But I think the TPBL is here to stay. Okay. So moms and dads, if you're watching this and you have a kid who is interested in the game, don't discourage them. Let them have time to practice and see what the future holds for them. Yes. Let's go back memory lane. Why do you choose to come to Taiwan? Oh, that's a good story too. So a girl that I was dating at the time from Canada, she wanted to travel and teach English and I did not want to do that. So we decided on we're going to travel after I lost a coin flip and she wanted to go to Costa Rica, but she spoke Spanish. So I said, no deal because I don't speak Spanish. If we're going somewhere, I want to both be dumb. So we came to Taiwan and she left 14 years ago and I've been here pretty much ever since. So if you're going to come to Taiwan with your foreign girlfriend and you want to have a long-term relationship, I advise against it. People come here, my own experience, it's tough here for foreign women, I find. Could you walk us through the first moment you arrived in Taiwan to the point where you found your feet? So I was lucky. I had a friend who had a school. So my plan for six months was to work one hour a week while she got this travel bug out and I was just going to eat Subway every day because they had a Subway close to where I lived. I was in Shida and I landed and I was actually in an apartment after only spending one night in a hotel because my buddy had set up an apartment for me. So we landed pretty good and I got the ARC rolling and I was teaching English one hour a week with my computer science degree. And then I ended up being, I was a DJ at one of the biggest clubs at the time for a while and that really messed with your head when you're fresh off the boat in Taiwan and now you're a DJ at this club. It really stuck me here, kept me here. And then once you're here for five years, the opportunities open up. Once you get the APRC, you know, lots of opportunities. You came here with a computer science degree. Why didn't you pursue that? People that have computer science degrees and work in the field in my area here, the salaries are very low in Taiwan. So it's very difficult for them to even compete with what I'm able to do teaching golf and doing different odd jobs and stuff like that. I wanted to make computer games and that's why I took computer science. And then at the end of it, I didn't want to program them. I just want to test them. So basketball got me through college. I graduated with a computer science degree, but I don't like working with computers. Canada is considered to be one of the first world countries around the world. Why would a Canadian leave Canada to come and live in Taiwan? Maybe they got osteoporosis and their bones can't handle the cold. I mean, first of all, I don't like winter. When I grew up in Canada, I just thought that was part of life. You know, for three months a year, you kind of stay home. It's too cold to go out and that's just normal. And then when I first came here and I went through a whole year of not dealing with winter, I realized that I don't like winter. It's fun for a week. What's your unpopular opinion about Taiwan? As my girlfriend's hiding in the room because she doesn't like the sun, is it's okay. It's okay to drink cold water, kids. It's okay to drink cold water. It's okay. It's okay to have wet hair. I find that Taiwanese people are over blow drying their hair and they're all going bald. That's my unpopular opinion. Is there any reason that you know why? Okay, you'll see it. You'll notice it. If you've dated an Asian woman, they have to have bone dry hair. If you can't walk into a room, if the hair's wet at all, because they might get sick or they might get a headache. Now, what I think is if you see some old ladies that are walking around with the umbrellas, because there's people that have umbrellas in the rain and the sun, you watch their scalps and it's thinning. I think they're over blow drying their hair. I think Asians are over blow drying their hair and they're burning their scalp follicles closed and hair's not regrowing. That's my unpopular opinion. What's the most difficult challenge that you've overcome or yet to overcome? It took me a long time to actually start studying Chinese. If I said I've been here for three years, my Chinese is pretty good. But I've been here for 15 years. My Chinese is not good for 15 years. But I started studying two years ago and that was the biggest challenge. And now I got to a point where I can do what I need to do, the essentials, eat, I can identify some characters. I can have that conversation with my girlfriend's parents at dinner time, when she goes to the bathroom, which is so important. Chinese, learning Chinese to a level of like a yo-yo band was the most difficult challenge. What advice would you give to anyone who wishes to come to Taiwan? My advice is most people come here to teach English. I'm old now. I'm 44. I came here to teach English. That's what I wanted to do. Just to stay here and travel. But if you're here for longer than five years and you're still just teaching English, and you have your APRC, you need to extend yourself a little more because there's more opportunities available. And just teaching English isn't going to get you the lifestyle that you probably wanted or thought you could have in Asia. Learn Chinese and get a Costco membership. That was my two big... Learn Chinese and get a Costco membership. You'll feel right at home. If you are to change anything in Taiwan, what would it be? Oh, I mean, the driving rules. For me, I would change the kids with no scooters, the people... I live in Xinbei City, so I see a family of four on a scooter, two kids not wearing helmets, and there's some sort of rule where you have to be a certain age before you have to actually put a helmet on. I would change that. I wouldn't tinker too much with Taiwan. I'm not all high and mighty where I've got all sorts of improvement tips for Taiwan. But one thing would be driving safety and the safety of pedestrians on the road. My driver's license that I got two years ago doesn't expire until I'm 74 years old. I'm 44 right now. So that means I don't have to go into an office and no one's going to check me or my eyesight or if I have the ability to tell right and left until I'm that age. That's a problem. And you see these more accidents where like an old person hits someone, right? So the reality is, is we have to be better pedestrians out there. Everyone watching this, you need to be a better pedestrian. Everyone's trying to kill you. And every day there's more older drivers on the road. Everyone drives a car, okay? Because for three months a year, it's so cold that everyone stays home. And here in Taiwan, we get the great public transit. You can go outside. For three months a year in Canada, you can die of exposure. My car breaks down and my battery's dead and I'm lost. It's minus 10. You know, that would never happen here. And we vacation a bit differently. So in Canada, you're cooped up all winter in your house. And then in the summer, you go to what's called a cottage, like a wooden cabin on a lake. So every year I go home and that's what I want to do. That's what Taiwan doesn't have. What Canada has that I miss the most is lakes that you can swim in, you know? And a nice, peaceful... I'm a water guy, as you can tell. I'm a water guy. I try to touch the water on my vacation once a day, a pool of some sort. Oh, this is my dad. If he's watching this, he's going to hate this. In Canada, we take care of our old people by making sure there's enough money saved up so we can put them in a retirement home. And it's nice. They've got a community with older people. Here in Taiwan, your parents, they live with you. You know what I mean? Or they're mega wealthy and they've had people take care of them. And then the older communities in my neighborhood, there's a woodball community where they play ground golf in the park. And it's their kind of retirement home. There's the temple communities where people, old people stick together a little bit better in Taiwan without the help of money. Taiwanese culture, I'm taking care of you, dad, if you're watching this. Taiwanese people take care of their elders better than we do in the West. They live with you in their later years. That's just normal. Do you have anything else to tell Taiwanese people? You walk around in Taiwan and some people will come up to you and you'll ask them a question in English and they'll say, sorry, my English isn't very good. Now, we're in Taiwan. If I reverse that and I'm in Canada walking through Chinatown, we have a Chinatown. I'm walking through Chinatown and I'm not going to say, oh, he's so good at Chinese, he's so good at Chinese. I'm going to speak to this person in English. People in Taiwan, you're so friendly, almost to a fault. And I appreciate each and every one of you. Thank you very much for giving us your time and sharing your life experience in Taiwan. And I hope you continue to enjoy your life here in Taiwan. Go out and watch TPBL basketball, guys. Best basketball in my time in Taiwan. All right. Please let us know what part of the video we can improve and see you in my next video.